Below: Our highlight in Wroclaw, the Aula Leopoldina in the main University building.
The immediate reason why the city's proper Polish pronunciation isn't apparent is the letter ł. Other letters familiar to English readers are also pronounced different. W in Polish is read as v, c as ts, ł as w - so a transliteration of the city's name is actually vrotswav. Obviously, ł doesn't turn up in non-Polish keyboards (for the same reason, I'm dropping the stroke in my ł henceforth), leading people to say it in ways they're used to.
From Wroclaw to Breslau
The many smokestacks we saw as we approached Wroclaw betray the largely industrial complexion of the Silesian region. Silesia was yet another alien name we encountered in our history classes in bygone days (again as part of the territorial clauses of Versailles). The historical region corresponds very much to southwestern Poland, and slivers of southeastern Germany and the northeastern Czech Republic.
Below: Silesian scenery nearly always includes a smokestack, or three. This was from the top of the Cathedral of St John the Baptist features the Church of the Holy Cross in the foreground.
But Wroclaw is more than another industrial conurbation. Its past reflect Silesia's transnational nature. Established by the Piast dukes who later put together the kingdom of Poland, the city came latterly under the control of the Czechs (when Polish rule weakened), the Austrians (when Bohemia was incorporated into the burgeoning Habsburg empire) and the Prussians (when Silesia was wrested from the Austrians in a series of eighteenth-century conflicts). Under the Prussians (later the German empire), Breslau (Wroclaw in German) eventually grew to become the largest German city east of Berlin.
Germans settlers were first invited to Wroclaw in the mid-thirteenth century by the Piast rulers to aid rebuilding following the devastation wrought by Mongol raids. 700 years later, another cataclysm was visited on the city as the Nazis and the Soviets fought tooth and claw over Festung Breslau (Fortress Breslau) during the Second World War. Like Gdansk, Wroclaw was a part of the Western Territories - land previously under German control given in compensation to Poland as the Soviets took a strip of eastern Poland for itself.
Below (top to bottom): Memorials to Poland's emergence from the Iron Curtain - A sculpture titled Anonymous Pedestrians, commemorating the people who vanished after the 1981 imposition of martial law; One of a entire battalion of gnomes scattered around Wroclaw. Each corresponds to a spot where activists once drew attention to attempts by the municipal authorities to cover up anti-communist graffiti by spray-painting gnomes over them.
From Breslau to Wroclaw
On our overnighter from Gdansk, Mary had astutely chosen the seats just in front of the bus exit. It meant we could recline without remorse and sleep comfortably. En route to our hotel, we saw a billboard announcing Wroclaw's designation as European Capital of Culture in 2016. This was unfortunately positioned - five storeys above an gaudily lit adult store.
It being barely 9am, we left our baggage at the hotel as check-in had to wait. Our progress to the heart of the city was arrested at the Galeria Dominikanska, a shopping mall not five minutes from the Rynek, the main town square. Mary saw Zara, and sightseeing was put on ice until after lunch.
By the time we were done, we resumed our walk to Ostrow Tumski (in English, Cathedral Island), where the city was first established. Ostrow Tumski belonged in a cluster of seven islands on the river Odra (Oder in German), and as its name suggests is where the twin-towered Cathedral of St John the Baptist was built. Subsequent development has seen the island connected entirely to the Odra's left bank, though its name is unchanged. At the cathedral, we paid 5 zloty to be whisked to the top of one tower, from where we saw the spires in the Old Town silhouetted vividly against the late afternoon sun.
Below (top to bottom): Walks by the Odra - from the right bank; to the left, and behind the Cathedral of St John the Baptist; to its top from where this city panorama unfolds.
From Ostrow Tumski we walked to the Rynek, where the Christmas and New Year decorations were being dismantled. Both vicinities showcased Wroclaw's pre-Prussian Polish and Catholic heritage, and were thus where postwar reconstruction efforts were focused. This was carried out selectively and strategically. As with elsewhere in the Western Territories, de-Germanisation and re-Polonisation went together to justify Poland's claim to what was termed the Recovered Territories.
Below (top to bottom): Wroclaw's medieval Rynek, incidentally Poland's second largest and, with Ostrow Tumski, the focus of postwar construction efforts; posing proudly in front of the eclectic-looking Gothic town hall, built over 250 years starting from the late 13th century, with our new snow trousers; the first time on this trip the temperature reached negative double figures.
Two landmarks in particular represented the two processes just described - the equestrian statue of Boleslaw Chrobry erected just south of the Rynek, and the reconstructed University of Wroclaw. The former replaced a similar monument to Kaiser William I which was deemed inappropriate because of his Prussian background. The University of Wroclaw was for us the highlight of our visit to the city. Its crown jewel is the Aula Leopoldina, an assembly hall on the second level which was grandly decorated with classically inspired friezes and frescos. On its walls were lined portraits of powerful people previously associated with the institution. Frederick William, the Prussian king who had participated in the First Partition of Poland, had his portrait replaced. In the upper levels of the building, a permanent exhibition listed the achievements of those Polish scientists affiliated with the university.
Above: Boleslaw Chrobry (the Brave), held to be the first king of a unified Poland and whose statue replaces one of Kaiser William I.
Below (top to bottom): Back to school shenanigans - the main building of the University of Wroclaw; the podium in the Aula Leopoldina; imagining ourselves in class (erm, yeah, I used to behave loke this in music lessons...) once more at the Oratorium Marianum, where recitals were once held; exhibits showcasing the university's medieval accomplishments.
Pressed for time, we didn't tarried. The university was our last stop, after which we hurried to catch a train to Katowice. We very nearly ignored Wroclaw, but were glad we didn't. There were other attractions in the city which we missed, but we think it would be enough to have visited just for the Aula Leopoldina. Walking back, Mary reflected that she wouldn't be where she is if she had studied at the University of Wroclaw.
I would have failed all my examinations if I had sat for them in that room, she said.
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